Many large structures, especially commercial structures, commonly have flat roofs supported by a truss system. Such flat roofs are made up of an underlayment of rigid panels secured to the trusses using screws and washers. The underlayment of rigid panels are then covered by a waterproof membrane that is rolled out across the underlayment and secured thereto by heat welding the membrane to the screws and washers holding the rigid panels to the truss system.
Currently, the installation of the screws and washers and the subsequesnt heat welding is performed by hand with hand held tools and/or standup tools that install each screw and washer and each heat weld one at a time. This process of course, is quite time consuming when installing a flat roof over structures that are sometimes acres in size. In addition, there are other difficulties with the current process, which includes installing the screws and washers in straight lines and being able to evenly spacing the screws and washers apart from each other. The placement of the screws and washers are commonly eyeballed by a worker installing same resulting in improper placement and/or spacing. The improper placement and/or spacing leads to additional problems when heat welding the membrane to the screw heads and washers. The main problem is finding each screw head and washer after the membrane has been rolled over the underlayment and the screws and washers, thus resulting in many of the screw heads and washers being missed during the heat welding process. This also results in uneven lines and improperly spaced heat welds that are unattractive and can affect the integrity of the roof. An additional problem affecting the appearance of the roof is caused by workers kicking the membrane to find washers underneath. This causes scuffs and dirt on the membrane that are then melted into the membrane further causing an unattractive finished product.
Therefore, a need exists for a flat roof washer and heat welding installation system and process that speeds up the installation process of a flat roof, evenly places and spaces the washers and screws securing the underlayment to the truss system in a grid pattern so the washers and screws may be easily found after being covered with a membrane, and a welding system that matches the grid pattern of the installed screws and washers to ensure that every washer and screw is heat welded to the overlying membrane.